Economics of Religion.

• Position: Conferences - Kaivan Munshi from Brown University - Shawn Kantor and Alexander Whalley from University of California - National Bureau of Economic Research - Conference notes

An NBER Conference on the Economics of Religion, organized by Jon Gruber, NBER and MIT, and Daniel Hungerman, NBER and University of Notre Dame, took place in Cambridge on October 15 and 16, 2009. These papers were discussed:

* Kaivan Munshi, Brown University and NBER, and Nicholas Wilson, Williams College, "Identity, Parochial Institutions, and Occupational Choice: Linking the Past to the Present in the American Midwest" (NBER Working Paper No. 13717)

* Shawn Kantor and Alexander Whalley, University of California, Merced and NBER, "The Ascendancy of America's Colleges and Universities: Separating the Roles of Church and State"

* Dan Benjamin, Cornell University and NBER; James Choi, Yale University and NBER; and Geoffrey Fisher, Cornell University, "Religious Identity and Economic Behavior"

* Gordon Hanson, University of California, San Diego and NBER, and Chong Xiang, Purdue University and NBER, "Exporting Christianity: Governance and Doctrine in the Globalization of Protestant Denominations"

* Robert Woodberry, University of Texas at Austin, "Weber through the Back Door: Protestant Competition, Elite Dispersion and the Global Spread of Democracy"

* Jay Hartzell, University of Texas at Austin; Christopher Parsons, University of North Carolina; and David...